I'd be more sympathetic to the author here. You don't know what they experienced, and you don't get a choice on how these things are going to impact you. People

I'd be more sympathetic to the author here. You don't know what they experienced, and you don't get a choice on how these things are going to impact you. People can get PTSD from relatively minor accidents or disturbing experiences. I had a fairly traumatic experience like the author's, it was relentlessly terrifying, and some of the things I saw were like precision bomb attacks on my ego that I couldn't just shake off by saying "well that wasn't real". I got over it fairly quickly, but I can fully imagine not being able to next time, and I will never be as cavalier with these things again.